The plot thickens, when running a live cd of the latest Mint I get sound on youtube.... next step is to install it and see if it still works (though I am slightly wary as Grub doesn't always pick up other Linuxs installed (so a quick back up and a look at adding grub entries would be useful! )

Lyn, the issue I've found with GRUB not picking up other installations depends on whether you're installing a 32-bit or 64-bit system. It's been my experience that GRUB for 32-bit distros tends to ignore any 64-bit installation.

OK installed a 64bit version of mint and all is working as expected, I have sound when using the www.... Flash etc This proves that its not the hardware that is a problem its the software (and its configuration). Now what configuration files do I need to look at to replicate on Vector - so that I can get sound working in my Vector install.... Sound also works in Manjaro live 64 bit version.... an Arch Linux based distro.

I searched the internet and couldn't find that page, I suspect quite a few people with have this issue so I think if we could make the solution "sticky" then that might help others....and thank you again for this.